Meal Pack as a Group

Packing meals in our kitchen is a great group volunteer opportunity. Every morning, we need 8-10 volunteers to help pack hot meals from 8-10 a.m.

Gather your coworkers, a group you’re involved in, or your family members and sign up to volunteer together!

Come serve your neighbors by assisting them with taxes.

Opportunities Include:

• Dinners: providing dinner to at least 12 volunteers on Tuesday / Thursday nights.
• Lunch: provinding lunch to at least 12  volunteers on Saturday
• Greeter/Screener: You greet everyone visiting the site to create a pleasant atmosphere. You screen taxpayers to determine the type of assistance they need and confirm they have the necessary documents to complete their tax returns. Tax law certification is not required for this position.
• Tax Preparer:  You complete and successfully certify in tax law training, including the use of electronic filing software, to provide free tax return preparation for eligible taxpayers. *Training can be completed easily with on your own or with the help of our qualified VITA team. Ask us how.

Meal Pack as a Group

Packing meals in our kitchen is a great group volunteer opportunity. Every morning, we need 8-10 volunteers to help pack hot meals from 8-10 a.m.

Gather your coworkers, a group you’re involved in, or your family members and sign up to volunteer together!

We look forward to having author Vanessa Miller spend an evening with us on Thursday, February 1st starting at 7:30 pm! Grab a cocktail and a seat because you’re not going to want to miss hearing her chat about her newest novel The American Queen.

Your ticket includes admission, a cocktail, and a copy of the book.

BOOK SUMMARY

In 1869 a kingdom rose in the South. And Louella was its queen.

Over the twenty-four years she’s been enslaved on the Montgomery Plantation, Louella learned to feel one thing: hate. Hate for the man who sold her mother. Hate for the overseer who left her daddy to hang from a noose. Hate so powerful there’s no room in her heart for love, not even for the honorable Reverend William, whom she likes and respects enough to marry.

But when William finally listens to Louella’s pleas and leads the formerly enslaved people out of their plantation, Louella begins to replace her hate with hope. Hope that they will find a place where they can live free from fear. Hope that despite her many unanswered prayers, she can learn to trust for new miracles.

Soon, William and Louella become the appointed king and queen of their self-proclaimed Kingdom of the Happy Land. And though they are still surrounded by opposition, they continue to share a message of joy and goodness—and fight for the freedom and dignity of all.

Transformative and breathtakingly honest, The American Queen shares the unsung true history of a kingdom built as a refuge for the courageous people who dared to dream of a different way of life.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Vanessa Miller is a bestselling author, with several books appearing on ESSENCE Magazine’s Bestseller List. She has also been a Black Expressions Book Club alternate pick and #1 on BCNN/BCBC Bestseller List. Most of Vanessa’s published novels depict characters who are lost and in need of redemption. The books have received countless favorable reviews: “Heartwarming, drama-packed and tender in just the right places” (Romantic Times book review) and “Recommended for readers of redemption stories” (Library Journal).

Visit her online at vanessamiller.com; Twitter: @Vanessamiller01; Instagram: @authorvanessamiller; Facebook: @Vanessamiller01.

MEET MULTI-INSTRUMENTALIST, STEVEN GALLOWAY!

This Greenwood, SC based, smooth jazz saxophonist has an impeccable degree — specifically a music degree from Lander University where he studied under Columbia jazz mainstay Robert A. Gardiner, whom he’ll still sit in with on occasion when passing through Columbia. For his music performance degree, Galloway said Gardiner would have him transcribe solos from the likes of Miles Davis and other jazz greats. However, Steven enjoys listening to a variety of music, from Grover Washington Jr., to Stevie Wonder and even Drake. Among his musical influences are, Charlie Parker, Hank Mobley, Thelonious Monk, Roberta Flack, Jim Snidero, Jerry Bergonzi, to name a few.

In addition to being a gifted saxophonist, Steven Galloway is also a jazz and classically trained pianist, so his supple licks are intricately constructed without being out there, and he drops in familiar covers of everyone from Michael Jackson to Patti LaBelle at his sold out shows. 

The soft-spoken Galloway considers himself to be an introvert, but he enjoys performing and exudes an amazing energy and a soul clenching performance that is unmatched. Stay tuned for more from Steven Galloway.

View Full Steven Galloway Bio >>

http://www.stevengalloway.net/

Join us for a Sit Down Supper in honor of Crystal Wilkinson and her new cookbook Praisesong For The Kitchen Ghosts. We’ll gather around the table on Sunday, February 4th starting at 6:30 pm for a five course dinner prepared by Chef Teryi Youngblood Musolf with wine pairings from Mission Grape.

Your ticket includes a welcome cocktail and five course dinner inspired by Crystal’s cookbook and an evening around the table right in the bookstore at M. Judson.

BOOK SUMMARY

A lyrical culinary journey that explores the hidden legacy of Black Appalachians, through powerful storytelling alongside nearly forty comforting recipes, from the former Poet Laureate of Kentucky.

People are always surprised that Black people reside in the hills of Appalachia. Those not surprised that we were there, are surprised that we stayed.

Years ago, when O. Henry Prize-winning writer Crystal Wilkinson was baking a jam cake, she felt her late grandmother’s presence. She soon realized that she was not the only cook in her kitchen; there were her ancestors, too, stirring, measuring, and braising alongside her. These are her kitchen ghosts, five generations of Black women who settled in Appalachia and made a life, a legacy, and a cuisine.

As the keeper of her family’s stories and treasured dishes, Wilkinson shares her inheritance in Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts. She found their stories in her apron pockets, floating inside the steam of hot mustard greens, and tucked into the sweet scent of clove and cinnamon in her kitchen. Part memoir, part cookbook, Wilkinson weaves those stories together with recipes, family photos, and a lyrical imagination to present a culinary portrait of a family that has lived and worked the earth of the mountains for over a century. An expert cook, Wilkinson shares forty family recipes rooted deep in the past, full of flavor—delicious favorites including Corn Pudding, Chicken and Dumplings, Jam Cake, and Praisesong Biscuits, brought to vivid life through stunning photography. Together, Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts honors the mothers who came before, the land that provided for generations of her family, and the untold heritage of Black Appalachia.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Crystal Wilkinson, Kentucky’s Poet Laureate from 2021 to 2023, is the award-winning author of Perfect Black; The Birds of Opulence; Water Street; and Blackberries, Blackberries. She is the recipient of an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Poetry, an O. Henry Prize, a USA Artists Fellowship, and an Ernest J. Gaines Prize for Literary Excellence. She has received recognition from the Yaddo Foundation, Hedgebrook, The Hermitage Foundation, and others. Her short stories, poems, and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. She currently teaches at the University of Kentucky in the creative writing MFA program.